We’ve had a short but sweet (ha!) email to Compost This from Matea:

Can I put sweets gone sticky in my compost bin?

As with many “can I compost this?” questions, there is no fixed answer that applies 100% of the time in 100% of the situations. In a basic open heap, I’d say no – the sweetness may attracted unwanted insects and if it’s only breaking down slowly, you might end up with a sticky lump in the middle of your heap. Even when it does breakdown, they won’t add that many nutrients to your compost heap – in the same way they’re not exactly nutritious for us to eat either.

In other situations though, sugar can be good for a compost heap – it encourages bacteria growth in bins otherwise lacking (bins filled with leaves usually need more help than bins filled with a mix of stuff including kitchen waste) – so in that situation, you might want to add your sweeties. To avoid the sticky lump thing, you could try heating them up and making them into a runny sugar water solution. Said solution can also apparently be used to perk up weak plants – a soak for bare roots – or even, moving away from compost, overworked bees. What else can they be used to perk up?

Any other uses?

(Photo by BarBloke)

We had an email from Lori the other day about the bags and things she makes out of old jeans.

You can be a “jeanius” like me, too!! RECYCLE!

As lover of both recycling and puns, how could I resist? ;)

Her range includes bags and accessories just using the fabric and items more obviously a former pair of jeans/denim skirt – ready-made pockets = win!

She also has some random fun things for sale – like this cheque book sleeve made using an old M&Ms wrapper. I think this is very cute and fun but unfortunately now have an insatiable desire for sugar-coated chocolate treats. Thanks Lori, thaaaaanks. :)

Anyway, you can find Lori’s things at http://loriforney.etsy.com

• How can I reuse or recycle old jeans?
• How can I make a bag out using recycled things?

We’ve already covered a multitude of Valentine’s Day-themed items but Tamara came up with a new one for us:

I’d like to know if anyone has a suggestion for how to re-use Valentine’s candy hearts? The chalky kind with writing on them, I mean. They passed them around at work yesterday. I only like the orange ones, and so I’ve been left with a card-deck sized box of other colors. I thought they might look cute as pins, but i think they’d melt if I tried to shellac them. So what to do?

From their pages on Wikipedia, the UK Love Hearts and the US Sweethearts sweets look a bit different but since Tamara (who I’m presuming is based in the US from her use of the spelling “colors” ;) ) refers to them as being “chalky”, I guess the texture and ingredients are pretty similar.

So any suggestions? I like the cute jewellery/badges idea but agree that it might be problematic – any ideas on how to get around that?

(Photo by kymmie_xox)